Page 4 of Accidentally Kidnapping the Cowboy

I check my wallet. She didn’t touch the cash I had in it. “Why’d you take this if you didn’t want the money?”

“Umm.” She swallows hard, not answering the question. “I’m Daisy, by the way. Nice to meet you.”

I grunt.

“And you’re Zane. I got that from your driver’s license. I’m sorry about all this. Seriously.”

“What isthis?”

She pulls a piece of paper from her backpack. “It’s a long story and we really don’t have time just now.” She pauses, a beatthat feels important. I’m still not prepared for what she says next. “I need you to pretend that we’re eloping.”

There’s an edge of panic to her voice, and it’s so real sounding my immediate instinct is to protect her from whatever unseen threat has caused it.

Trap trap trap.

The distraction means it takes a second for the meaning of her words to sink in.Eloping?“Pardon?”

“It’s semi-urgent.” There’s a knock at the door and she winces as her voice jumps half an octave, her words jamming together now. “Make that very urgent.”

My pulse thuds hard and heavy in my neck. “Who is on the other side of that door, Daisy?”

“My stepfather.” I can see the whites of her eyes all the way around her pretty irises, and while I’m sure no girl would like to be compared to a spooked horse, that’s the only frame of reference that I have.

And like any ranch hand who finds himself trapped with an out-of-control animal, I do what I need to do in the moment.

“It’s okay,” I murmur, low and slow. “I’m going to answer the door in a minute. You don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to.”

“I kinda do, though. It’s his truck I was driving when I found you.”

“When you found me…at the roadhouse?”

“Yes.”

“How did I end up here?” But I remember slices of the night now, enough that I can picture what she fills in.

“I couldn’t leave you there! They were going to kill you!”

“It was a bar fight!” I’ve never been in one that ended in death so far, anyway. I scrub my hands over my face. “You didn’t have permission to drive his truck?”

“Not exactly.”

“So when I open that door, he’s going to think I’m an accessory to a felony.”

She gives me a blank look.

“The car theft, Daisy.”

“Oh.” She worries her bottom lip as the man on the other side of the door bangs his fist again, yelling her name. “You didn’t have anything to do with that. You weren’t even awake.”

“Where are we?”

Now that her panic is settling down, there’s a stubborn little lift to her chin. I won’t go so far as to say I like it when it’s aimed in my direction, but that’s better than freaking out. Her answer, though, doesn’t make me feel any better. “Nevada.”

My voice raises dramatically. “You took me across two state lines?”

“Just barely. Like…boop, and we’re back in Idaho.”

Boop.Jesus Christ. “I was in Wyoming the last I checked!”

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